CPA ads on Skweezer
I was just reading an article by Dave McClure entitled “Yahoo just needs to fix one thing: Monetization“. He outlines three ideas for helping Yahoo skweeze squeeze more profit out of each search: finish a new advertising platform, do Cost-Per-Action (CPA) advertising, and acquire more startups.
Skweezer could really help out Yahoo on points 2 and 3. We’ve been experimenting for the past few years with how to best monetize browsing traffic: contextual ads, teeny-tiny CPM banners, even charging for pro service outright. As a mobilizing web proxy, Skweezer is uniquely situated to complete CPA transactions because while users are shopping and bidding and searching, they never actually leave skweezer.net. Verifying completed mobile CPA transactions through Skweezer would not be difficult at all, were we to somehow start showing CPA ads. Significantly, we would not require any change to the advertiser’s existing site and there would be no tracking “leakage” (blocking or failing to download a tracking beacon). The only other type of company that has this visibility would be the user’s carrier/ISP themselves, and how many advertisers are going to do separate deals with every carrier in the world?
I wonder how general web CPA solutions such as newly announced Turn.com handle this uncertainty. Interestingly (to me anyway), it seems like they have some former AltaVista alums at the helm, but I doubt they remember or ever crossed paths with me or Kevin from back in the day when we worked at Shopping.com. Small world, and I wish them well.
Posted by Barnabas Kendall